Experimental Bakery
Most people who say these sorts of things will say that while cooking is an art baking is a science. Nonsense. Baking is mad science. Mad, I say! Hahahahaha. . . Ahem. My point is that while most recipes for baked goods are presented as a set of complex equations that must be followed exactly, with the slightest substitution, miscalculation, or deviation being potentially catastrophic, this type of scientific consistency is not important unless your kitchen is some sort of Henry Ford-esque assembly line, complete with silent film herky jerky doublequick- and rag-time, in which case allow me to be your Snidely Whiplash, baby. The reality is that only by varying the amounts of various ingredients, steps in the mixing process, and cooking temperatures and times will you discover for yourself what part these things play in the recipe’s outcome, and thus become better prepared to make up recipes of your own. In each resultant lumbering, inedible monstrosity (a batch of fruit juice-sweetened, peanut butter cinnamon dried apple carob chip cookies comes to mind) lies the potential for something grander than the humdrum pablum that those culinary industrialists would have you consume, and only occasionally will you find yourself faced with a god-fearing mob of dessert fork-wielding dinner guests, waving their tea candle torches menacingly and threatening to storm your kitchen laboratory. The fools - you’ll show them all!
A recent experiment of mine has been veganizing the cookie recipe below that I found in a some magazine article. This recipe is perhaps the ultimate expression of my general theory of desserts, which states that no dessert is complete without chocolate (and its corollaries a) any dessert may be improved by the addition of chocolate, and b) the more chocolate a dessert contains the better). While most cookie recipes contain a number of non-chocolate ingredients (like flour and what have you), this one really cuts to the chase. The problem I’ve encountered is that in the absence of actual eggs there seems to be little keeping the individual cookies from devolving into one gooey, indifferentiated, half-baked mass. Some solutions I’ve considered include increasing the amount of flour slightly, raising the baking temperature to 375 or 400 and cutting the baking time to 10 minutes, and giving up entirely and turning it into a brownie recipe instead, but I’m open to other suggestions. The last batch of these I attempted resulted in only one cookie that I would consider presentable. It was worth it.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 lb. bitter/semi-sweet chocolate
- 1/4 cup unsalted margarine
- 1 3/4 cups light brown sugar
- 4 measures egg replacer
- 1 tbsp. vanilla
- 4 tbsp. instant coffee (optional)
- 7 oz. chocolate/toffee chunks*
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
Equipment: Mixing bowls, melting pots, baking sheets, lightning rods, maniacal laughter.
Music: n0 things - trees
Instructions:
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- Melt chocolate and margarine together in a sauce pan over low heat and stir thoroughly. Remove the pan from heat and allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm.
- Beat brown sugar and egg replacer together in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in vanilla and instant coffee (if desired).
- Stir in chocolate and flour mixtures. Add toffee and walnuts and place in the refrigerator for a few hours to chill.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with waxed paper (if you have it) and scoop out large (1/4 cuppish) chunks of the cookie dough from the bowl, placing them relatively far apart on the sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 15 minutes until dry and cracked on top but soft in the middle.
* I’ll post my vegan toffee recipe eventually. For now, either make one up or just use chocolate chips instead.
Experiment with this recipe yourself and let me know how it turns out. Remember: Baking: it’s alive. Alive!
